It appears this is going to be a challenging year for fans of Magic: The Gathering. At least, a bad year for the pocketbook. Fans of Magic: The Gathering products will have tons of new cards to get excited about but at the end of the day, the number of sets and amount of material is almost overwhelming — especially for players who enjoy multiple formats. All of this on the heels of what is arguably one of the better recent core sets released, it could make for a banner year for Wizards. It could also be a bit of a financial challenge on some of their devoted fans. Seven new sets and a Duel Deck between now and Christmas alone!

So what’s in the pipeline?

Eternal Masters
Release June 10th
For Vintage and Legacy players, Eternal Masters will offer cards that will help engage players in those older formats, reprinting classic Vintage and Legacy cards like Force of Will. It will be a great set and likely of interest to those playing these formats or simply looking for reprints of older cards. All cards will have the newer style borders and some will have new art as well.

Eldritch Moon
Pre-release July 16th
Release July 22nd

The second set in the Shadows over Innistrad blocck, Eldritch Moon promises more angels, zombies, werewolves and the like. No sets will rotate out with the release of Eldritch Moon, so this will help bolster an already interesting Standard environment.

From the Vault: Lore
Release Aug 19th

The next From the Vault set will be From the Vault: Lore. Not much is known of the set other than the fact that it will consist of 15 premium foil reprint cards with some cards having new art.

Conspiracy: Take the Crown
Release Aug 26th

Conspiracy: Take the Crown is a multiplayer set built with drafting in mind and the sequel to the 2014 Conspiracy set. A good time to be had with friends!

Nissa vs. Ob Nixilis
Release Sept 2nd

The next Vs Duel Deck will once again feature planeswalkers as the mythics — this time the most recent Nissa and Ob Nixilis cards and decks built around them.

Kaladesh
Pre-release Sept 24th
Release Sept 30th

We get to visit a new plane in what has felt like almost too long — this time Chandra’s plane of Kaladesh! Promising an interesting setting and cycling out Dragons of Tarkir and Origins from the Standard environment.

The release of Kaladesh also brings some other new changes. Intro Decks will be replaced with two Planeswalker decks which will include one Mythic rare planeswalker from the set and additional cards built around the planeswalker or helping to power the planeswalker.

Fat Packs will also be going away and will be replaced with the very similar set bundle — for example the Kaladesh Bundle. This bundle will include land, ten bosters, a spindown counter, box, life counter and a rules reference card.

Commander 2016
Release Nov 11th

The next series of Commander decks will feature five 100-card 4-colour decks. Given the lack of four colour Legendaries currently (there are none) it is likely we will see three new Legendaries for each deck. It should be interesting to see what the decks contain when they are released.

Planeschase Anthology
Release Nov 25

For fans of Planeschase, this Anthology set will include 86 plane or phenom cards (likely from the previous editions) plus four 60-card decks. Combine them with the 2016 commander decks if you want a really chaotic time.

Gregory Grondin is a full time Systems Analyst working for Mariner Innovations. He also works as a weight loss consultant for Weight Watchers and is part owner of Heroes' Beacon. You can follow his web comic series at http://www.spacepawdyssey.com

Greg is a fan of gaming and comics in general and an avid collector of Transformers figures.